Six Hundred Wrongfully Mobilized Russians Sent Home

Some 600 hundred Russian citizens who were wrongfully drafted as part of President Vladimir Putin's decree in Russia's far eastern Primorsky Krai region have returned home, an official has said.

The governor of the region, Oleg Kozhemyako, announced that the roughly 600 mobilized residents of the region were sent home due to some having health problems, and others having more than four minor children.

He said that many of the citizens liable for military service did not inform the military registration and enlistment offices about illnesses or changes in their families, and so they received a summons.

Kozhemyako added that 7,400 mobilized from the region are currently being trained to be sent into battle in Ukraine.

Putin announced a mobilization of hundreds of thousands of men to reinforce his military in Ukraine last month. Defense officials have said up to 300,000 reservists would be called up to fight. The conscription order affects reservists and ex-military personnel with "certain military specialties and relevant experience."

However, since the decree was announced, multiple reports have emerged of ineligible men being called up for military service.

The Russian president has been forced to acknowledge that "mistakes" were made in early mobilization efforts.

"In the course of this mobilization, many questions are coming up, and all mistakes must be corrected and prevented from happening in the future," Putin said in his opening remarks at the Russian Security Council meeting on September 29.

Putin, in his rare admission, said that "all mistakes" made in efforts to mobilize should be corrected. He added that anyone who was drafted despite not meeting the criteria set by defense officials "must be sent home."

Earlier this month, in Russia's far eastern Khabarovsk region, around half of those recruited were sent home due to wrongful mobilization, according to the region's governor.

"Out of several thousand of our compatriots who had received a summons and arrived at military enlistment offices in the past 10 days, around half have returned home for failing to meet the selection criteria," Governor Mikhail Degtyaryov said.

The United States-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed on September 30 that mistakes made in the aftermath of Putin's partial mobilization decree show the "systemic weakness" of Russia's military.

Putin "acknowledged and deflected the blame for repeated 'mistakes' during the first week of mobilization" and "recounted instances of mobilizing men without prior military experience, assigning servicemen to the wrong specializations, and unfairly mobilizing men with health conditions or large families," the ISW said.

The ISW also said the Kremlin's contradictory statements and procedures "demonstrate the fundamental nature of the systemic weakness of the Russian military establishment that have characterized the entire invasion."

Neil Melvin, director of International Security Studies at British defense and security think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told Newsweek that Putin's mobilization efforts have "come too late to stem further Ukrainian advances" and highlight "the hollowness of Russia's armed forces, including the disorganization and lack of preparedness in the mobilization system across the country."

Newsweek reached out to Russia's foreign ministry for comment.